


Nothing remains, nothing lasts

by Calming_calamity



Category: Avatar (Sweden Band)
Genre: 17th Century, 1890s, Blood and Gore, No ships but if you want to interpret it in a romantic way go ahead, Other, Supernatural Elements, They all die anyway don’t get attached, johannes is an asshole, they start losing their souls or somthing, they’re all teens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:36:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29899821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calming_calamity/pseuds/Calming_calamity
Summary: The magic fades too fastthe scent of summer never laststhe nights turn hollow and vastbut nothing remains...nothing lasts.A deal with the devil leaves a travelling circus act to reap the souls of children for eternity(Inspired by Avatar metal, the night never ending music video in particular sparked the idea for this story)
Kudos: 2





	Nothing remains, nothing lasts

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So first Avatar fic and i’ve spent a long time on this! Not many people’ll read this cause like- there’s not many people in the fandom at all. But it’s been fun for me to write and it’s like my little creation that i’m kinda proud of, enjoy! X

John watched the little girl with frog -like eyes. Watched her kick rocks at the dead cat rotting away on the dirt road. Watch her scratch at her underwear and sniff her hand. 

He blinked. Swatted a fly away from his face and glanced back at the girl. She had travelled across the road to squat down next to the cat. With a long stick half her height in hand,she began to poke its eyes out. 

The first eye got caught on the stick,which she flung right over her shoulder. The second she had more trouble with and burst into jelly and slid down the poor cats face and into its gaping mouth. 

John hugged his knees against his chest and sighed “children” he thought. Scratching his chin “sick bastards” 

He watched as the girl threw the stick away and shoved her fat little fingers right into the cat's spewed guts. 

He wanted to hurl

“She’ll get all kinds of diseases from that,” he thinks. Standing up and letting the thin blanket fall out of his lap. He cups his hands around his mouth and goes to shout at the girl. 

The words are right there. Right on the tip of his tongue. He can feel them in his throat, twisting and bubbling. But all that comes up is a gurgle. Spit fills his throat and he coughs. 

He tries again. This time all that leaves his throat is a high pitched whine. He shakes his head. Digs his fingernails into his palms and takes a deep breath.

He sounds like he’s choking. Like he’s trying to throw up. Choked sobbing noises. “Argh” he can still from unintelligible sounds on his lips. He just yells at her instead. 

He sounds like he’s got a stick up his ass. Like a lifelong smoker coughing up their lungs. 

The little girl looks at him oddly,with her unblinking,too big, and too far apart eyes. She cocks her head to the side and continues to stare as John clenches his throat. He’s wondering if he squeezes hard enough and compresses his air way maybe some words will pop out. 

The girl is no longer interested in disemboweling the dead cat and is more interested in watching the contortionist she saw last night at the circus choke himself to death. 

She stands there in the middle of the road,unblinking. John starts to wonder what’s wrong with the girl. Maybe her far apart eyes meant her brain is all stretched out too far like the rest of her 

He falls to his knees and chokes down a sob. He puts his head in his hands and gasps. He intertwined his fingers at the back of his head and smashed his head down into wooden floor boards of the front porch. 

Hé looks up. The girl’s taken a tentative step forward. He hopes she doesn’t come any closer,she’s starting to freak him out. 

He bows his head and smashes it against the porch again. The skin on his forehead splits, he tastes blood on his lips. He opens his mouth wide and tries to call out to Johannes who he knows is in the kitchen. 

“Johannes” he whispered. It’s deathly quiet. He can hardly hear himself. He goes to say it again. Louder this time. Nothing but spit and blood. He tries again. His throat tightens and there’s a ball of hot rust clogging his throat.

He’s crying now. Tears blur his sight and he feels dizzy. He flings his head back harshly and screams. Screams so loud the bats in the tree next to the porch fly away into the daylight in a frenzy 

He hears the sliding door slam and urgent footsteps.   
“John!” Johannes yells. Falling to his knees next to John and wrapping his lanky arms around his shoulders. Pulling his head to his chest. “Fuck John...what happened???” 

The only reply he gets is John harshly clutching at his shirt. He kisses the top of John's head and rocks him back and forth.

Henrik runs onto the deck collapsing next to them. He reaches a hand out to John. Putting a hand to his cheek. He’s got tears streaming down his face already. No. Not John.John doesn’t cry. Their John doesn’t ever cry. Oh god he’s bleeding. No no no no no. 

Johannes leans into henrik pulling John towards him too. Henrik and Johannes wrap one arm around John’a shoulder and one around his waist each. Sandwiching him between them. 

They stay like that for a while. Not once does John stop shaking. Henrik starts to sob. He can’t help it. He can’t stand others being sad. He can’t stand John being sad more than anything. 

Johannes hums a tune that started to play in his head after spooning John got boring. He wants to finish the vegemite sandwich he made that’s laying half eaten on the kitchen bench more than anything. 

John’s twisted around to sob into both of their necks, Henrik’s and Johannes hair act as curtains around him. Johannes’s hair is getting greasy and smells weird but henriks is soft as always. 

He lifts his head the tiniest inch and peaks across the road. The girl is still staring. He frowns. He opens his mouth to try yelling at her again. A loud honk fills the air and he snaps his jaw shut. 

The girls goes flying. She slides across the road and comes to an abrupt halt. The truck’s not stopping. It can’t. The driver throws all her weight into turning the wheel. She tries to drive themselves off the road. The truck turns 180. The momentum pushes the back tires forward. And the truck almost turns 360. It’s the back tires that take the girls head off. 

John hears her skull shatter from the porch. It echoes down the empty street. He watches in horror as the tires compress her skull and her eyes bulge out of their sockets. 

One of her eyes goes flying and lands 2 metres away from her in the gutter. The other squishes entirely and slides down her unrecognisable yet human face. 

She lays on the road in a twist. A pile of cheap my little pony merch and blood. Too far apart eyes physically even further apart than before. 

Her skull all collapsed inwards. Hair barely clinging to the shards of the scalp and skull opened up like a flower. Her brains slushed in the hollows of her skull. And partially spilled over the top gaping hole. 

“Humpty dumpty had a great fall” Johannes whispers 

John huches over and hurls. Getting vomit all over himself,Johannes and Henrik. It sticks to Johannes hair. 

Henrik passes out when he sees the girl,slumping over right into John's pool of vomit. 

Johannes gags. Grabbing Henrik under the armpits and sitting him up against the sliding door of the porch. 

He stands up,pulling John up with him. But John’s too weak at the knees to support himself and collapses into the vomit at his feet. 

Johannes sighs. This was getting ridiculous. He’d have to do heaps of washing after this. Or maybe he could just get Tim to do it. 

Last time Tim was supposed to do the washing he got the plague. So Johannes has done it for him. Now Tim could do the washing for him. Consider it a favour at long last re-payed

Johannes glanced at the girl. Her neck was already twisted when she was hit by the truck. The back tires just squished her head

The truck driver was frantically speaking on the phone to someone. Most likely an ambulance or the police. 

Johannes’s eyes felt wet and he wiped the tears falling down his face with the back of his hand. He hadn’t cried in decades. 

He tears his face away from the girl on the road and looks back at John and Henrik 

John was hunched over again on his knees. His head in his hands,using his fingernails to scratch bloody lines into his face and scalp. 

His breathing got faster and faster and faster and the scratching got more and more violent. There was blood in his eyelashes,blood in his mouth,blood on his shirt. 

His chest burnt,he needed Johannes. He needed Henrik. He needed Tim or Jonas. Anyone please god anyone. His sight goes blurry. He can’t see past the tears and the blood. 

Johannes grabbed both of his hands and quickly pulled them away from his face. “Stop it!” Johannes yelled 

John flinched,cowering away from Johannes. He choked on a sob gasping like a fish out of water

Johannes shakes his head. Something was seriously wrong. Horribly wrong. John has seen his fair share of blood and guts. This shouldn’t bother him as much as it was. 

John tugs his hands out of Johannes' grip and goes flying backwards into the leg of the outdoor couch. “help me! I cccc-ca-cahhhhhgh” h yelled out in pain. His throat had unclenched and freed a few words when he hit his head

“I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s wrong!!” Johannes screamed, pulling John up once again. He tugs him forward and yells in his face “STOP ACTING LIKE A FUCKING CHILD!!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU???? HUH?!!! WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO??!! GO SCRAPE OFF THAT UGLY FUCKING TOAD OFF THE ROAD!!??BRING HER ROTTING CORPSE BACK TO AVATAR???!!!”Spit flew from his mouth hitting John in the face 

Johannes stares him down with a burning fury. John stares back with wide wet eyes. Silent tears streaking down his face. 

He takes a small step back. Johannes wouldn’t hit him. No- why would he even think that?  
John hunches his shoulders forwards, subconsciously preparing himself to be hit. He lightly pulls away from Johannes,but Johannes just pulls back harder. 

Johannes pulls John against his chest. “Oh god I’m so sorry,I’m so so so so so so so so sorry, please- I didn’t mean it,please just tell me what’s wrong? I promise I’ll do whatever it takes to fix it. I’ll do anything for you.never forget that. Anything.”John stays silent.Johannes cards his fingers through this hair “John?? Please you need to tell me what’s wrong???it’s not just the girl is it???it’s something else too” he whispers. Resting his chin on top of John’s head. 

John shakes in Johannes’s arms. He’s shaking from- from fear. He’s scared. He can’t calm down. He’s scared of-of what’s happening to him. He’s scared of what’s already happened to him and he’s scared- he’s scared of Johannes. 

That’s what scares him the most, being scared of someone he loves. Feeling like someone so close to his heart is tearing it apart 

He takes a deep breath and gives in. Leaning heavily into Johannes's embrace,hiding his face in his neck. 

Johannes shuffles the two of them over to the couch falling down on his back. He pulls John down with him “hey….. just- just get some rest, I’ll be here” Johannes whispers to John. 

John doesn’t move. Doesn’t lean into Johannes or pull away. He wants to desperately get away. To grab Henrik and get away from it all. From Johannes from the death and the lies. 

But he stays. 

He stays, for the better or for the worst. He stays. He closes his eyes and lets Johannes hold him.


End file.
